Mar

2

Changing States

March 2, 2007 |

[-r-mindfullness-]

by Nancy S.M. Waldman

Ready?
Alter your brainwaves.
Begin.
Go on.
I’ll wait….patientsmiley.gif

For many, the first and possibly only impulse upon getting instructions like that would be to start drinking or taking drugs, legal or otherwise.intoxicatedsmiley.gif

But, to alter your way of perceiving the world without injesting something? Yes! It is more than just possible; it’s attainable.innocentsmiley.gif

But, why? Why would I want you to alter anything about the way your brain functions everyday? suspicioussmiley.gif

To enhance your creativity, of course. winkingsmiley.gif

As we’ve talked about before in our R-mindfulness columns, parts of the brain work for us creatively and parts don’t. Our everyday brains are understandably and adaptively programmed for what we do on a daily basis. Even if we do creative things everyday, our minds are set on a certain kind of creative output. We have to shake things up, alter what parts of our brains we’re using, in order to be fully creative. This is because the creative process requires of us the ability to think flexibly, go off on tangents, free associate, be instinctive, switch courses, take it one, two and more steps farther than anticipated.

Our l-mind shudders at the thought. surprisedsmiley.gif

There are many ways to slip into that more creative frame of reference that we like to call r-mindfulness - see our Mind-Altering Exercises feature for some [slightly tongue-in-cheek] suggestions - but the tricks have to do with using the intelligence of our senses. In order to draw a glass of water sitting on the table in front of us, we must see that water glass differently. Our eyes can do that if our mind lets them. Paradoxically, it takes seeing the glass as a flattened pattern of edges and negative space in order to reproduce it faithfully as a three dimensional-looking drawing. Once we allow our eyes to see it, we can draw it.

Sometimes we literally have to turn things upside-down to get our l-mind to move aside and let the r-mind come to the forefront. The classic example of this - used by Betty Edwards in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - is to take a complex line drawing done by someone else, turn it upside-down and copy it. Persons who swear they have no artist ability can do a masterful job of reproducing the drawing. Why? Because the l-mind doesn’t find an upside-down drawing logical. It loses its bearings and - in the presence of specific instructions about how to proceed - allows the spatially perceptive part of the brain to work its magic.

Altering your brain doesn’t mean changing it in some fundamental way. Instead, it means accessing parts of your brain that may be underutilized. That’s why experimentation and free association and doing exercises that turn things upside down are helpful. Once we know what that shift into r-mindfulness feels like, it becomes easier to get back there when we’re ready.

And remember, it isn’t just our eyes that have intelligence. Use all your senses to access your r-mind. Writers and actors as well as artists can use smells to evoke a sense of place and an immediate emotional reaction in a way that promotes r-mindfulness. Don’t forget touch, taste and hearing as well. Experiment with your senses in a playfully purposeful way to enhance your abliity to be creative.

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Originally published in the April 2006 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: alterations
© 2006 -2007 - all rights reserved

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also posted in: Inspiration , Creative un-Blockers , Alterations , The Original PCQ, 05-06 , Essays - Nancy , Perception , Practice & Practices , C-mindfulness , Process

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